Welcome back, we’re in the slog part of the project I find very challenging.  Slogging means we’re doing the infrastructure projects necessary for the house to function so we can move the project forward.  Our envelope has been created,  foundation and framing are done and the house is sealed.  Now we need to have all the things built out that make the house function,  like plumbing, electrical, heat and insulation.  It’s boring, takes too long, and most of it gets covered up.  That said,  it’s really important and needs to be done right.  I show this picture because it was a good day with lots of subs onsite making things happen. I think you’re seeing plumbers,  gutters, and contractors.  Days like this don’t happen often enough and help to make the slog worth it.

Lots of subs onsite doing what they do

My biggest challenge is keeping track of the all the details of the project.  So many vendors and trades, so many inbound and outbound phone calls, so many different folks onsite.  To keep track of it all I created this spreadsheet.  Day of the month for headings, different projects by month on the rows,  time needed in the columns.  The projects are sequenced by critical path whenever possible.  Green bars are scheduled,  yellow isn’t scheduled yet but pending,  and red isn’t a good thing.  Wish I’d invented it but I stand on the shoulders of giants.  It’s the best view I have on project status for what needs to be done, yet in another sense it’s a fantasy because there are so many variables and constant change.  I feel like I have some control but accept that the chart has to be massaged pretty much daily.

Project Scheduling

So, let’s take a tour and see the progress we’ve made.  As I said, we’re slogging right now but that’s necessary to get onto the next stage.   Here’s the new entry way which is a blank palette right now.  Renee and I are of the mind that the entry establishes our home’s feel and are starting to have visions of what could be.  We want it to be inviting and capture the natural feel of where we live.  She is a Master Gardener so there will be lots of plants and trees surrounding the entry and probably a cool planter or maybe some sculpture.  The door you see is a temporary dunnage door which will be replaced with the permanent door when construction is further along.

Entryway in Process

This is a before picture.  I won’t miss the giraffe rock.

Entry before

So let’s step inside on the tour.  First stop is after you’ve walked thru the front door and thru the entry way into the great room.  I’ll explain that shortly.  You’re looking into the kitchen and with a bit of imagination can see that the framed wall (center of the picture) will have our refrigerator next to upper/lower cabinets and the induction cooktop with lowers and kitchen sink against the exterior wall. There is a big island where that 2/10 electrical cable is coiled up on the floor.  The man door leads to the covered deck.  Laundry room and my office are behind the framed wall.

Great Room – Kitchen

Here is looking to the other end of the great room from the kitchen.  Lot of thought into making this space happen.  Again, the island sits where the coiled cable is on the floor but otherwise the rest of the space is a blank palette that will become our living and dining rooms.  There’s a spirted discussion going on about which room goes where so stay tuned to see what we decide.  Man door at the end of the room leads to more deck on the south side of the house where we get sun when it’s out.  The fireplace is propane and our alternate heat source if the electricity goes out.

Great Room – Living & Dining

Here’s a view of the other side of the kitchen space looking down a hallway leading to the back half of the house with bedrooms and bathrooms.  Those are topics for a future post.  To the right of the hallway is the front door behind that 3/4 wall. This side of the 3/4 wall is an appliance carport which will be installed on the framing behind the garbage cans.  If you don’t know what an appliance carport is you’re not alone and that too will be a future post.  Try googling it and you don’t get many hits because it’s not very common. It is Renee’s inspiration when she’s in full on creative mode.  It’s a bit hard to explain but imagine an appliance garage without any doors that looks attractive.  I’ll do a future post to show what she’s come up with, I think it’s pretty cool.  To the right of the carport is the new pantry.  And another shameless plug for my girder truss which in running down the middle of the picture in the ceiling, sorry, can’t help it.  None of the great room would be possible without it.

Great Room – Appliance Carport

So let’s wrap up with this picture of the 3/4 wall, but just after you’ve walked in the front door.  It’s 5’ tall leaving 3’ of open space to the ceiling so you won’t really see the kitchen but will have the feeling it’s there.  The opening looking into the great room frames the view from the big windows but you only get to see part of it so again teases you about what’s there.  The intent is to give clues about what’s above and behind the wall when you walk in and invites you to come inside and find out more.  We  thought a lot about this and like the idea of some mystery,  looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Entryway – Inside

So we’re close to wrapping up the slog with insulation and drywall being the last steps.  Then we get to start doing projects that are much more exciting because they get us back upstairs.  Still too early to forecast when but Renee does have a birthday at the end of May.  Could be the best present ever.

Thanks for reading, appreciate your support and look forward to the next post.

Welcome back, this post is all about hitting a major milestone in the project where we finished installing the new roof.  Living with plywood and tarps as substitutes for roofing gets old, and dealing with water on the main floor was beyond tiresome.  For those who don’t know our living situation: the house is two stories and we’re remodeling the upper level and living in a MIL apartment on the lower level.  Water never made it downstairs but there were some stressful times.

There were lots of things going on to reach this milestone so let’s break them down.

Roof to be replaced with the guard dog on duty

This picture highlights the part of the roof we had to replace to open up the main floor.  The entire roof is constructed of trusses and we needed to replace 12 of them to accommodate the girder truss I discussed in the last post.  Installing it meant we could remove the wall under it and have a great room that includes the kitchen, dining, and living rooms.  Doing this was central to the design of the house and allows us to highlight the view we have of the Salish Sea.

Look carefully and you can see there’s a chimney which was the exit for a large fireplace.  We removed it last fall and were left with a gaping hole in the roof.  A sheet of plywood solved that problem but wasn’t completely water tight,  just mostly.  The chimney wasn’t the only hole in the roof as the project moved forward so we learned to pay attention whenever an atmospheric river was forecast.

Living the Dream under Blue Tarps

There were lots of concerns about opening up the roof mid winter because making all the parts of that project fit together was really challenging with our typically unpredictable winter weather.  We needed several days between starting tear off and resheeting the new roof with plywood.  In between those steps included removing old trusses and installing new ones so tarping the exposed roof was critical.  The challenge is having something in place to support tarps during the transition.  This is what we looked after the roofing was removed but the old trusses were still in place.  And yes,  I know that’s a lot of gray tarps but blue tarps are industry standard and we just weren’t able to meet it.

Roof Off, First Truss Installed

Old roof and trusses are in the dumpster, this is the first trust being installed,  and that big pile on the ground soon followed.

Girder Truss Installation

Here is the girder truss after it has been installed, it’s the one that looks like a big beam made out of 2×6 lumber. The other half of the roof is being hung off of it and you can see there’s no wall under it any more.  It’s pretty wonky technically  and I apologize for my obsession with it, but it’s been the biggest challenge we’ve faced.  It took 2 engineers, an experienced crew, and some breaks in the weather to get us to this point.  Sort of disappointing that all that time and energy will be covered up with drywall.   Fortunately we’re past it now and can focus on taking advantage of the new space it gives us.

How to Install a Roof

This is what it looks like when roofing pro’s show up.  Roof sheeting is complete and the tarps pulled back giving them room to work.  This was the crew with machines to make it happen and they installed my roof in less than 2 days despite the rain.  I was starting to be able to exhale watching them work their magic.

Finished Roof

And here is my finished roof.  The roof has been a long time coming, we’re looking to the next chapter of the project building out the interior.

Thanks for reading, look forward to showing the cool stuff we’ve been planning.

Welcome back, in this post I’ll show what we’re planning inside and thoughts about our design decisions and why we made them.  Adventurer is a big house with big rooms,  but very cut up and disjointed.  The flow of the house was very confusing and a common refrain from guests once they were inside was ‘where am I?’

This picture captures a hot button for me:  Try to find the view of the Salish Sea thru the slider and kitchen window.  Yep,  it’s there but hard to see and that needed to be fixed.  The markup you see here is what we’re planning to change.  The wall with the slider will move out 8’ and get lots of new windows and the wall to the left will disappear.  How does that happen since it’s a bearing wall?  Well, let me explain.

Original View with Changes

We’re going to install a girder truss across the house which will support the roof without needing any beams or posts.  Doing this opens up the kitchen, living room, and dining room to each other which will create a great room with lots of natural light and windows taking advantage of the view.  You can see the girder truss location in red on this floor plan.  The picture above was taken as if I were standing at the right side of the new island.  The magic of the girder truss is that it is buried in the ceiling and you won’t see it, just uninterrupted open space.

Before we move on,  I want you to pay attention to where my new office will be located in the upper left corner of the plan.  It has some spectacular views, and looks directly at Mt Baker.   When we walked thru the house the first time I was taken aback with what I saw.

Great Room with Girder Truss

If you can’t believe what you’re seeing neither could I.  Building a sauna where a spectacular view exists isn’t common but there it was.  This may not be the biggest transformation in this project,  but it’s a contender.  I’m looking forward to moving into my new space.

Sauna w/o a view

Wish I could capture the progress we’ve made so far but it doesn’t photograph very well yet.  Here’s a quick summary:

Demo work almost completed

New deck is framed

Most of the new windows and doors are installed and trimmed

Most of the exterior is re-sided

Interior framing is in progress.

Next project is tearing off some of the roof to install new trusses,  and then we’ll be able to reroof and seal up the exterior.  If you read my last post at the end I teased about the ‘cloud’ over part of the roof.  That ‘cloud’ is what this post is all about.

Thanks for reading, hoping my next post has some dramatic changes to show.